UK Cold Water Swimming Championships 2025

More than 700 swimmers from across the world gathered at the UK Cold Water Swimming Championships at Tooting Bec Lido to celebrate the return of the popular swim gala. Ella Foote reports.

After a week of grim, wet weather, it was a welcome relief to wake to blue sky and sunshine on the morning of the UK Cold Water Swimming Championships. The event, which has grown over the years, was last held in 2019 and is a favourite for swimmers across the world. The event is run by volunteers from the South London Swimming Club at Tooting Bec Lido, London. The swimming club was established in 1906 and is run by volunteers to preserve Tooting Bec Lido and to ensure the pool remains a viable and valuable resource for the local community. If you are a member, you can swim regularly at the pool, even in winter, and join weekly races in sun, rain or snow!

Tooting Bec Lido is the largest freshwater pool in the UK at just over 91 meters long and 30 meters wide. It is a glorious place to swim and train, loved by locals and visiting swimmers alike. My first ever swim at Tooting was entering the event many years ago and I remember now how I was blown away by just how big the pool is.

This year’s event was highly anticipated after the bi-annual event took a break during the Covid-19 pandemic followed by a period of closure to renovate and maintain the pool. The sun was out, the air temperature was a cool and the water was a chilly 5.5ºC. While there is a competitive element to the event – there are 90m and 30m distances in freestyle, breaststroke and ice fly – the biggest and most entertaining part of it all is the hat competition.

I was joined at the event by colleagues Simon Griffiths, Sophie Etheridge and Rowan Clarke, but there were many other swimmers to see and meet. One of the best things about the event is catching up, bumping into and meeting new swim pals. I swam the 90m freestyle, 30m breaststroke and then joined author Emma Simpson’s relay team with flower adorned bonnets. While I was never out to win any medals, our founder and publisher Simon Griffiths loves to race!

“I felt slightly guilty about indulging my competitive instincts when most people were there to show off their fancy hats or just soak up the carnival atmosphere,” says Simon. “Still, I was secretly pleased to walk away with two individual medals and one from a relay. I first got dragged into cold water swimming 10-years ago at the 2015 edition of this event. I was a reluctant convert to the cold and took a lot of persuading, but now I’m a tiresome evangelist for it.”

The hat competition is always insanely competitive and incredibly impressive. Swimmers’ creativity and imagination is always fantastic but at this event, it is at another level. Within minutes of entering the pool area I was smiling. A woman was wading through the crowd with a table on her head and full tea party; alongside her was a mad hatter! The hats are worn in the traditional heads-up breaststroke race, the fancier the better. There is also a marvellous hat parade for spectators to look on in awe. I had sympathy for the judges as this year’s hats were insanely brilliant. There was everything from knitted or crocheted hats to cleverly engineered headgear. My favourites included a dragonfly made from recycled materials, a paper-mâché Nessie (which was worn by four swimmers to make the monster) and wave/splash complete with diving Barbie dolls.

The championships are brilliantly organised and this year’s event was made possible by over 200 volunteers. Swimmers were looked after from the moment they stepped out of their clothes to the moment they slipped into the warming hot tubs. It is not an easy task to schedule races and ensure everyone is safe, happy and fed. Pop-up food vans and hot drinks kept us all going and in between swims you could slip into the retail marque for a some further swim-inspiration.

The next event will be held in 2027, so there is time to start planning your hat – never mind training for the swims!

Read Ella’s review of Portishead Popsicle.